RichGuy
02-18-2012, 10:19 PM
The point of this trip was the enjoy dinner with friends at Victoria & Albert's, dates based on crowd levels and some unrelated family events going on in Tampa.
Different trip for us: shorter (5 days instead of 7), and a trip in the middle of Islands of Adventure. Our park time was limited, and we didn't get to Animal Kingdom at all.
Brief thoughts about IoA:
Sight lines and show building were pretty random (Hogwarts clearly towers over the Jurassic Park island), and some show buildings had no exterior theme at all (Jurassic Park River Adventure is just a big building). One of the most amazing show buildings I've ever seen contained one of the most disappointing shows I've ever seen (Poseidon's Fury). The Howgwarts show building and queue area are as good as you've heard... very cool. The ride is also solid technology, but with no real story.
Universal IoA is what Six Flags theme parks want to grow up to be, but I don't think they really compete with Disney on even ground. It's like the whole park is in costume, but not in character.
Lodging: We rented DVC points and stayed in a Boardwalk Villas studio. It worked out to roughly $225 a night, give or take. No king sized beds are available in studios, at all... so we got the least comfortable queen sized bed ever. LOVED the location, but the room... eh.
Dining: Tokyo Dining (Epcot), Afternoon Tea (Grand Floridian), Via Napoli (Epcot), Victoria & Albert's (Grand Floridian). These are four of our favorites, and they're great. It was our first time at Via Napoli, and it's in the same league as our best local pizza places... it comes down to preference if it's in the running for "best ever," but it's darn good.
Nightlife: A friend of ours was staying in Bay Lake Tower, and got us in to the Top Of The World lounge. Best lounge we've found on property, by far. Drink prices are reasonable, the drinks are everything they should be, and the environment is relaxed and modern, with little semi-private rooms around the perimeter. Love this club, if you can get in, do it.
Parks: I was happy to see that MuppetVision 3D had been repaired from the broken elements from our October trip last year. In fact, all of the animatronics seemed to be in tip-top shape...
Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom: think of this as a little like the Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure, but with videos and Pokemon cards. The cards have attributes (attack, defense, etc.), but that didn't seem to matter when we played. Rumor was that the came would have different difficulty levels when it's fully built out, and ours was the easiest. Different cards had different animations, and read very reliably when held up.
Big advantage of the video format was that your mission could end anywhere, so there wasn't ever a big line of people at the last stop. The game felt a little like the old Dragon's Lair or Space Ace games in terms of animation and gameplay. I'm sure more advanced evolutions will be less like that.
I love to see that Disney is packing more entertainment in to existing assets, and I look forward to more.
Different trip for us: shorter (5 days instead of 7), and a trip in the middle of Islands of Adventure. Our park time was limited, and we didn't get to Animal Kingdom at all.
Brief thoughts about IoA:
Sight lines and show building were pretty random (Hogwarts clearly towers over the Jurassic Park island), and some show buildings had no exterior theme at all (Jurassic Park River Adventure is just a big building). One of the most amazing show buildings I've ever seen contained one of the most disappointing shows I've ever seen (Poseidon's Fury). The Howgwarts show building and queue area are as good as you've heard... very cool. The ride is also solid technology, but with no real story.
Universal IoA is what Six Flags theme parks want to grow up to be, but I don't think they really compete with Disney on even ground. It's like the whole park is in costume, but not in character.
Lodging: We rented DVC points and stayed in a Boardwalk Villas studio. It worked out to roughly $225 a night, give or take. No king sized beds are available in studios, at all... so we got the least comfortable queen sized bed ever. LOVED the location, but the room... eh.
Dining: Tokyo Dining (Epcot), Afternoon Tea (Grand Floridian), Via Napoli (Epcot), Victoria & Albert's (Grand Floridian). These are four of our favorites, and they're great. It was our first time at Via Napoli, and it's in the same league as our best local pizza places... it comes down to preference if it's in the running for "best ever," but it's darn good.
Nightlife: A friend of ours was staying in Bay Lake Tower, and got us in to the Top Of The World lounge. Best lounge we've found on property, by far. Drink prices are reasonable, the drinks are everything they should be, and the environment is relaxed and modern, with little semi-private rooms around the perimeter. Love this club, if you can get in, do it.
Parks: I was happy to see that MuppetVision 3D had been repaired from the broken elements from our October trip last year. In fact, all of the animatronics seemed to be in tip-top shape...
Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom: think of this as a little like the Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure, but with videos and Pokemon cards. The cards have attributes (attack, defense, etc.), but that didn't seem to matter when we played. Rumor was that the came would have different difficulty levels when it's fully built out, and ours was the easiest. Different cards had different animations, and read very reliably when held up.
Big advantage of the video format was that your mission could end anywhere, so there wasn't ever a big line of people at the last stop. The game felt a little like the old Dragon's Lair or Space Ace games in terms of animation and gameplay. I'm sure more advanced evolutions will be less like that.
I love to see that Disney is packing more entertainment in to existing assets, and I look forward to more.